On this episode we are joined by Naama Blatman-Thomas (a PhD candidate from Israel who has done field work with Palestinian groups in Karmiel) and Mark Thomas (an American activist who has lived in both Israel and Palestine, including spending years in Palestinian refugee camps) for most of this episode. They discuss the recent escalation in Gaza, the Israeli government censoring the fact that the Israeli citizens who were kidnapped were killed right away – in order for anti-Palestinian sentiment to grow, challenge the idea that criticisms of Israel’s human rights abuses are anti-Semitic and cover the broader context behind the recent escalation in Gaza. Also covered on the episode is Tamil refugees being imprisoned on a locked ship while the High Court decides their fate, Amnesty International’s website about Australian government refugee policy secretsandlives.com.au, us crashing a government press conference and we introduce the new segment ‘Let’s Talk Hockey’.

You can listen to the second part of the interview with Naama and Mark here: Episode 63: Take Action Against Occupation!. Naama and Mark recommend people check out The Electronic Intafada for more information on Israel/Palestine. You can also listen to our 16th episode Long Live Palestine, where we gave an introduction to the conflict. We’re only two members away from 30 members. If we get to 30 by the 24th of July, we’ll upgrade our account so all of our episodes (including our 16th on Palestine) will be available on iTunes, Stitcher and Cyber Ears – rather than only the most recent 30 or so. You can find out about becoming a member of our show here and you can see the new mics we’ve been able to buy thanks to our members here.

You can listen to a short (8 minute) version of this episode, where Naama and Mark discuss the recent escalation in Gaza, here: Gaza Under Siege. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.

On this episode we take aim at FIFA and the human rights abuses associated with the World Cup. We discuss the $11 billion spent on the tournament by the Brazilian government, at the expense of much needed government services. We also mention that thousands of people have been evicted from their homes and sex workers have been pushed out of the city. We play an interview with a mem­ber of the Comité Po­pu­lar da Copa in Sao Paulo, a co­or­di­na­ti­on of groups and individuals against the FIFA World Cup and its negative effects. This interview is thanks to Anarchist Radio Berlin and we encourage people to listen to the entire interview here (we play a shortened version). We also mention that gay players have been encouraged to come out at the World Cup, as well as discussing nationalism and militarism in ice-hockey, pointing out that Nick is so normcore he doesn’t even have to try, and giving shout outs to the Queer Punx and the Angry Hippie.

This episode is brought to you by Ben “not a corporate shill” Spink. Thanks a lot to Spink for becoming a member of our show – you can become a member and sponsor an episode too!

You can listen to a short (6 minute) version of this episode, which focuses on gay players being encouraged to come out at the World Cup, here: Coming Out at the World Cup. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.